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Ah, Britain. I was SO excited to arrive back in my home country after so long in countries where i couldn’t speak the language. I was starting to get really homesick, despite all the fun I was having. We arrived in the UK on November 5th, and we stayed in a little pub called “The Crown” about an hour or so outside London in Clapham Junction. It wasn’t too bad a train ride to get into the city each day, and I had a lot of fun taking my boyfriend round all the major sights.

Trafalgar Square

We saw most if not all of the typical London things to see… The London Eye (although I’d already been on it and the boyfriend doesn’t do heights, so we didn’t go up it), Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, London Bridge etc. etc. I don’t feel like I can delve into everything that I love about London, simply because there’s so much. I’m not sure I’d necessarily want to live there, but I’ll definitely be going back as often as I can.

Covent Garden plus telephone boxes

A few highlights, I guess, were Covent Garden, Big Ben and Hamley’s. I’m aware that Big Ben is the bell and not the building, but as I don’t know what the building is called Big Ben will have to do it (we didn’t see the bell…). I get the impression from conversations with my mother that Covent Garden is much more high-end than it was in the seventies and eighties, but I loved it nonetheless, despite or even maybe because of the fact that I couldn’t afford anything. I will be going back, with lots more money.

I think the main thing that endeared me to it was the way it was set out. I loved the contrast of the cheap and nasty souvenir and second hand market across the road from the kitschy, artsy stalls selling things like silk scarves, metalwork jewellery and carved wooden ornaments that I’d never have been able to get through Australian customs if my life depended on it. And then in the next few streets there were all the higher end stores selling off their own brands, like the Dr. Martens or the Cambridge Satchel Company pop-up store. We spent a good hour in the Tintin shop where the boy spent about as much money as I spent on my mask on merchandise, and to top it all off it looks really pretty at sunset. A plus in anyone’s books, I reckon.

Big Ben, and surrounds, I have to say were simply impressive. There’s not really another way to describe it. Even though I’ve been to London before, a few times (hell, I’d been just before going to Greece to get my passport renewed!) I don’t think I’ve ever been that close to Westminster Abbey, or if I have, I don’t think I realised it at the time. I was surprised by how dwarfed it is by its surrounds, making a fairly massive building by the standards of its time, appear quaint and understated, which you really don’t get from this picture at all…

Westminster Abbey (not looking quite so small from this angle)

Hamley’s I don’t really have any pictures of, just this one with me next to life-size Lego models of members of the royal family…

Lookit, Kate, Will and Harry. Also Phillip.

We were there during the Christmas shopping high period, and my poor boyfriend (kidding, it was hilarious) bore the brunt of some British humour in the form of an information attendant in Oxford Circus. As we came out of the tube station, we were both quite disoriented and weren’t sure which way the shop was, so we decided to ask for directions. The exchange went something like this:

AND THEN HE STARTED TO WALK AWAY. I Think sometimes he’s way too polite to guess when people are joking… coming from a British background, I see now why he thinks my mother doesn’t like him. It’s not that, she just likes making fun of him. The poor info guy looked completely taken aback that he’d been taken seriously, having heard my accent he’d assumed we were both British and would understand, poor bloke unwittingly confused the life out of my silly Aussie boy, who hasn’t yet learnt from me that this is considered high class humour where I’m from…

After London, (having stayed in a small hostel above a pub in Clapham Junction, about an hour out of the city by train, and only been harassed by one drunken man for pizza) we moved on to Cambridge, where my parents were renting a flat for my dad’s sabbatical and mum’s long service leave (for those of you in countries where this doesn’t exist, basically she gets one school term, or ten weeks, worth of paid leave every ten years she works at that school. We were really lucky everything coincided like it did).

One of the many impressive university buildings in Cambridge

We stayed there, very cramped up (we took over my brother’s bedroom, and he slept on an air mattress in the hall) for a few days, wandering around Cambridge to museums and cafes, before heading to Lancashire to visit some old friends for a few days. We went on a walk through some farmland, and I saw the girls I went to nursery school with again.

Ah, Northern English countryside

From Lancashire we drove to Bromyard, a small town on the border with Wales, for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of my dad’s parents, at which point (or just before) I got really sick. Like, I didn’t change out of pajamas for about a week kind of sick (that sounds grosser than I intended. By no means did I wear the SAME pajamas for the week, I changed out of one pair and into another). Most of my family was there for this, which could have been slightly awkward for my boyfriend, suddenly being foisted upon my grandparents, aunt, three of my cousins and right at the end my uncle and his new wife, but if it was he didn’t show it. It was a pretty cottage-type house with plenty of room and it was a great week of celebrations, culminating in a massive Chinese take-out banquet, at which not nearly all of the food was eaten, because it’s Chinese take-out, it never ever gets finished and you always order too much rice.

The house in Bromyard

We had an afternoon in Hay-on-Wye, another small town, this time just inside Wales, which is almost entirely made up of bookshops. I went gift shopping while everyone else went wandering, and then we got back in the car and drove into mid-Wales (I’m really not sure if that’s one word or not…) to see my mum’s parents and stay with them for a week. Still being sick, I wasn’t too keen on the walks around the village everyone else was going on, so with the promise that I’d come with when I came back at Christmas, they went without me.

One of few walks I DID do was around this dam (you can see the wall in the distance) which was overflowing. I’d been there a few months prior and the water wasn’t even hitting the top of the wall, let alone going over it!

Another British-staple type-thing we did was drive from Wales to Manchester for a football game (soccer, for any Aussies or Americans reading. And potentially Canadians, what do you call football in Canada?). We watched Man City beat Aston Villa by an atrocious margin, just as well we were sitting on the City side (my home team). After the match, Dad drove us past the house we lived in when I was born, and pointed out all the differences. I was really appreciative of that, because I was only two when we moved from Manchester to a little village about three-quarters of an hour outside Lancaster.

Shocking. Aston Villa way off their game for the whole season, I believe.

Etihad Stadium

The last big thing with did in the UK before flying on to Germany was go to Leavesden Studios in Watford Junction for the “Harry Potter Experience” it’s some of the best fun I’ve ever had (such that when I got back to the UK around Christmas, I went again with my little brother), and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who’s even a bit of a fan of the movies. They’ve got pretty much everything you could possibly want to see, and the interactive digital guides are a must. Seriously. Go there.

The bus you get from the train station to the studios

Me outside the studios

Mmm, butterbeer (I think it was some kind of creaming soda style pop, but not the noxious pink stuff you get here, with vanilla cream to get the “head”)

I’m kicking myself for how long it’s taken me to write this, and I think I’ve only got two, maybe three posts to go before I’m finished writing about my trip and have to find something else to write about… in the meantime you can follow me on twitter or instagram (or both?) I’m helenrov on both, and I will most likely follow you back, although I’m still learning about using them so bear with me!

I’m going to start off straight off with this: I love Paris. I love the art galleries, the culture, the streets of shops and the ENORMOUS department stores. I loved being able to see the Eiffel Tower from the metro station near our hostel, the views from the main attractions, all the people everywhere and just the atmosphere. It was late October by the time we got to Paris and starting to cool down, which I was grateful for. I don’t think I would have managed the bajillion odd stairs I climbed up with Osgood-Schlatters if it was also 35ºC outside. I might have melted.

From the metro station at the top of the hill our hostel was on. EIFFEL TOWER!

All this said, I don’t speak any French, and my boyfriend speaks even less (ha). I can do basics, but my accent isn’t good and I don’t understand any of it (it’s one thing to ask, “hello, where is the nearest metro station?” it’s a completely different thing to understand the answer). We go by ordering food, and generally speaking if you throw in a few French words here and there (Bonjour, Merci, etc.) and look generally apologetic for not speaking their language, people aren’t rude to you, and are generally happy enough to help.

Basically my favourite gargoyle

Our first day we climbed Notre Dame. 387 steps in a spiral. Agony, but well worth it. I seriously do not regret the pain at all (and seriously, not that hard. If I can do it, you probably can. About 90% of the world is fitter than me so really, just do it). The view is magnificent. And so many gargoyles! I have photos of pretty much every one I saw, but I won’t share them all with you, I’ll stick to my favourites. Emmanuel (the bell) is enormous, definitely worth a look, and once you get up the very top, it’s incredibly high. Like, I-can-see-the-whole-city high.

Paris… from very very high up. 387 steps high up

That evening we caught the metro down to the Moulin Rouge to have a look at the windmill and walked through Montmartre up to Sacre Coeur to watch the sunset. Word of warning, you can’t see the Eiffel Tower from Sacre Coeur, there’re trees in the way. It was all gorgeous nonetheless, but due to the crowds (and our own exhaustedness) we didn’t get inside the cathedral, which I’d have loved to do. We were unfortunate in only having planned for a week (truthfully, we could’ve stayed longer but I was getting seriously homesick and wanted to get back to England asap as it was pretty much the longest I’d ever been without seeing my mum), but we still got as much in as I guess we could have hoped for.

Sacre Coeur

Myself in front of the Paris skyline

The next morning we queued for the longest amount of time so far on the trip to climb the Eiffel Tower. We got the lifts up, but I hope one day (when I go back with an un-injured knee) to climb the stairs (although you can only climb halfway, then you have to take the lift). It was super packed due to a long weekend in a number of European countries, and full of dressed-up kids due to it being Halloween. I’d never seen the Eiffel Tower before, despite having been to Paris a couple of times on camping trips as a small child, and I was totally blown away by it. It’s enormous and beautiful.

Magnificent, is it not?

Another Parisian view, with amazing weather featuring the massive shadow of the tower

Later on that day we walked down the Champs-Élysées (stopping off to gawk at some HUMONGOUS stores on the way) and climbed the Arc de Triomphe, also breathtaking with amazing views of the Eiffel tower. We stayed up there for sunset, in time for the lights on the tower to be turned on and everything to start glittering. Romantic? Incredibly.

Eiffel Tower being sparkly and amazing

Champs-Élysées at night

Arc de Triomphe being impressive

On November 1st we spent our morning at the Louvre (can I just say I really loved being 18 on this trip? I got in free pretty much everywhere…). We stood in a massive crowd to see the Mona Lisa, which, conversely to popular opinion, was bigger than I was expecting it to be. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard so many people go on about how TINY the painting is… I don’t know. It was more amazing to see the people crowding around her than the actual painting, to be honest. I appreciate its a masterpiece and all, but the social obligation to go to the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa if you’re in Paris sort of astounds me. You don’t really get the same thing about art anywhere else. No one is shocked if you go to Canberra and don’t see Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series… I digress. We saw the staples, if you will, of the Louvre, and then headed back over towards Notre Dame for souvenir shopping (I may or may not have an extensive snow globe collection…)

Ooooh, art.

Friday (the next day) was my “Paris Shopping Day” which I completely failed at seeing as I didn’t buy a single thing. I had a look at some art outside a church behind the Louvre by Mauro Perucchetti, and made my way over to the LaFayette centre, which is the biggest shopping center/department store/thing EVER. Probably (not really, but I think it was for a bit). They had their Christmas tree up ALREADY (November 3rd. Really, guys?) and it was probably the biggest tree I’ve ever seen.

Female David

Flipping huge tree, right?

On our last day in Paris we went to see the pyramids outside the Louvre and walked through the Jardin des Tuileries. This took a surprisingly long time as, not only is it much bigger than I was expecting but we kept stopping to look at things and sit to watch ducks swim around in fountains.

Pyramid!

Completely gorgeous day, also ducks

As you can probably tell from the pictures it was a completely gorgeous day, some of the most perfect weather we experienced on the whole trip; not hot, not too cold, and sunny with pretty, fluffy clouds. After marvelling at the obelisk for a bit we went to Pierre Hermé to buy macarons, some of which were really nice, others were a bit odd…

Obelisk being tall

Pretty box, pretty macarons..

I think this one was some kind of flower flavour, which was interesting

On the 4th of November we took a Eurolines bus (I tell you, getting that ticket was the most stressful thing ever) from Paris to London, and arrived in the early evening, actually managing to miss my parents being in the city by about an hour.

More on the UK next time, hope you’ve enjoyed my photos, feel free to ask me anything about my time in Paris, especially if you’re planning to go there yourself, I’d be happy to help in any way I can. (I totally broke my 500 word limit and made this post even longer… sorry. Let me know what you’d prefer to read from me anyway, once I’m done with my travels these posts will be less essay-like, I swear)